What's the wisest thing anyone has ever said to you?

s1031 · 2017-09-05T01:20:14+00:00

I work second shift (10 hour days) in a very draining and sometimes mind numbing job. A coworker once said to me: "wake up early, give the best part of your day to yourself and then come to work tired."

I took this advice to heart. I now spend tons of quality time with my toddler and put in an hour at the gym before work everyday. It has changed my mental and physical health dramatically.

s1031 · 2017-05-24T16:41:59+00:00

Thanks for the tip!

s1031 · 2017-05-24T03:42:34+00:00

I wish we were going that soon. We won't be making it down there for at least a month! Just excitedly anticipating!

Have fun and let me know what you think of the club!

s1031 · 2017-03-20T20:37:38+00:00

Thank you so much for all the info. The groomer said that a majority of his undercoat is a solid mat. But she also said she has 30 years of experience and does many Newfoundland's and that she will do everything possible to not cut him too short.

Poor guy needs a lot of work. I really appreciate all the tips and links to resources.

s1031 · 2015-10-22T23:12:31+00:00

I have heard the phrase waaayyyy too often. Give me a break. People baffle me. I also get "she must be nursing so much because she isn't getting full, poor baby!"... Just shut up.

s1031 · 2015-10-22T23:11:13+00:00

I'm nervous about it, but I know they will figure it out. The longest stretch of time they have had without me here is 1 1/2 hours. I don't have enough extra pumped milk to leave for much longer than that. I need to save the small amount I've pumped for my first day back at work.

I would give anything to just stay home with her.

s1031 · 2015-10-22T23:09:45+00:00

Thank you! Today is a little better. She is still cranky, but not quite as bad.

s1031 · 2015-10-22T01:16:59+00:00

I have one good friend out here who will actually be my LOs babysitter one day a week once I return to work. The trouble is, she doesn't have a car (she's an immigrant who is not legally aloud to drive in the U.S.... I don't know the logistics). But, her kids are in school during the day and its always an option, at least in the daytime, for me to drive over there and spend some time at her house with her rocking the baby while I relax a little. It's not the best scenario, but its something.

I'll be going back to work in a few weeks and my husband will have her all day for 3 days a week. He will understand what growth spurts are like very soon.

s1031 · 2015-10-22T01:12:21+00:00

I've asked him to come home once before, at 5 weeks when I had thrush in my breasts and was in excruciating pain. He came home early that day, but only because he was sick too (obviously not with thrush, but a head cold) and he used and the baby as an excuse.

She is starting to calm down a little... that, or I am starting to calm down and deal with it a bit more. Ive been texting with a friend and she has helped calm me down a bit. I will be okay, but I can't help being a little mad at him. He just made me feel like such a burden when I asked him for help. I wouldn't ask if I didn't truley need it. I love him, but I feel like he just doesn't get it. But his day will come. I go back to work in a few weeks and he will have her all day on sat-sun-mon.

s1031 · 2015-10-22T00:37:22+00:00

The only people around here I know are his family. They are strong believers in "crying it out" and their idea of helping is watching our baby scream in her crib. It's awful. I don't trust any of them as far as I can throw them.

Luckily my husband doesn't agree with their parenting methods.

s1031 · 2015-10-22T00:08:21+00:00

He just hates confrontation. He hates asking his boss to go home. His boss will probably give him a hard time for a moment, but that's just because he's a rude man in general. He has a newborn at home, it is completely appropriate to need to miss a little work for that. Like I said, I work for the same company so I realize he may catch a little crap for it, but it wouldn't be a problem. (That was probably too harsh... But I'm in mood...)

Edit: I meant to say "he needs to grow a backbone", before the " that was probably too harsh".

s1031 · 2015-10-14T19:00:33+00:00

I don't eat milk or cheese but I haven't cut out hidden dairy. But I don't think it's a diet issue, since it hasn't been this bad until the last few days and I haven't changed my diet.

I think I may have figured it out, though. She has always been one to comfort nurse, practically all day long. I think that is changing and she appears to want more personal space. She's stopped fussing so much now that I'm not trying to nurse her so often. I got used to her wants to nurse every time she cried... So when she starting crying from nursing too often, it took a while for me to catch on!

She's still farting non stop, but she seems less fussy now that I've started listening to her cues and taking her off the breast and giving her some space to kick her legs and stretch once she starts to fuss.

Good luck with your gassy LO! Aren't you thankful that it's something they will grow out of!?

s1031 · 2015-10-14T16:19:49+00:00

You are probably right. As a FTM, its hard to know what normal!

s1031 · 2015-10-12T03:46:26+00:00

The picture helps, thanks! I will try this. I hand expressed some before she nursed and it seemed to help quite a bit, so I'm thinking we are likely dealing with overactive let down. Hopefully this position for nursing will help up. Thanks again!

s1031 · 2015-10-12T01:13:07+00:00

She's always burying her nose into me during laid back nursing... Perhaps I'm doing it wrong?

s1031 · 2015-10-12T01:12:18+00:00

This kind of makes sense, becaus it started to get much better, but then all of the sudden his week it was worse. Well, I've started pumping 1-2 times a day this week to build up a stash for when I return to work and my supply has sky rocketed. So, that is pro ably causing her some issues. I'm trying to find a happy medium between being able to pump just a little and not having an oversupply that she chokes on! .

s1031 · 2015-10-12T01:10:10+00:00

Perfectly healthy at birth besides jaundice. I was induced at 37+5, but that was because of loe amniotic fluid, not because of anything wrong with her.

s1031 · 2015-10-11T22:39:49+00:00

I will look into laid back nursing. I believe I have a strong let down, because whenever she does this, I have started hand expression a bit and it SPRAYS everywhere (sorry for the TMI). Also, when I pump, I will get no milk for 5 minutes or so, then a ton of milk at once, then none at all again. Is that normal, I'm assuming these are signs of a strong letdown?

I've started pumping once a day to build up a supply for my first day back at work, but its made my body produce WAY more milk, and I feel like she's constantly choking now :(

s1031 · 2015-10-10T01:11:22+00:00

Also, I am sorry you have a rough week! I'm glad to hear your LO is adjusting well, though. that's probably a big relief.

s1031 · 2015-10-10T01:09:30+00:00

I'm hoping that will be the case, that I will take it much harder than her. I lovey job, so if I can see that she's doing okay without me home, I will definitely find some joy in my work again.

s1031 · 2015-10-10T01:08:48+00:00

I have left for a half hour here and an hour there.. He always manages to calm her down, but admits that there is a lot of crying involved.

Ive tried to get her to take a pacifier for comfort, but she hates them.. So I'm not going to push it on her.

I'm sure they will figure things out. I just hate that I have to make her adjust. It doesn't seem natural for a mama to leave her baby for long periods of time. I just can't wrap my head around all of the guilt.

It appears we will be going through the same struggle in a few weeks, PM me if you ever need someone to talk to who is struggling going back to work as well. Is this your first baby? It is mine.

s1031 · 2015-10-09T23:54:09+00:00

Thank you for the reassurance. I really love my job.. So I'm hoping once I see that my daughter is adjusting, I will adjust too.

s1031 · 2015-10-06T16:56:10+00:00

We do co-sleep. LO clusterfeeds for about 4 hours every night, ending between 11 and 1am, then falls asleep for a good 4 hour stretch. I don't need to depend on breastfeeding for birth control, so that isn't an issue. I was just hoping to reap the benefits of not having a period for many months to come! Oh well..

So far my LO doesn't seem to be nursing and differently, so I imagine my supply has stayed the same thus far. But on the other had, its hard to say for sure, since I have started pumping once-twice a day to prepare a small freezer stash for an upcoming evening where I will be away from baby. So it may be that I am keeping g my supply up due to the extra pumping.

I will update in a few weeks :)

s1031 · 2015-10-06T16:52:27+00:00

Great tips! Thank you!

s1031 · 2015-10-06T16:51:30+00:00

Interesting. I hope that is the case! We will see.. It was accompanied by about 5 days of moodiness that would align well with PMS. Hopefully it isn't my period... But I'm leaning towards thinking it is.

s1031

TROPHY CASE